Quilt Retreat Day Five

If you are joining me for the very first time or have been away for a while, I’ve been sharing my latest adventures at my Little Cabin In The Woods (LCITW). This is the fifth posting in the series. If you would like to read the other four I will have links to them at the bottom of this page. Welcome!

Day Five

I awoke this morning to another absolutely gorgeous day in the north woods. The sun is filtering through the trees creating a dappled light that gently illuminates my work area. I feel so blessed to have this space.

Artful Improv

Last night, when I crawled beneath my covers, I took with me Cindy Grisdela’s book “Artful Improv.” After finishing the quilt top for the commissioned project yesterday I wasn’t quite sure what to tackle next. By reading Cindy’s book I thought perhaps it might be the spark to lead me in my next direction. Unfortunately my overwhelming fatigue allowed me to only briefly browse the many colorful and interesting pages.

Free-Form Quilts

Even though the quick tour was not really enough time to glean a lot of information it did bring back memories of the class I took a year ago this last May. It was a class led by Rayna Gillman called Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts. I wrote about the retreat in several posts. This is a link to one of the posts. I enjoy creating art through patterns as well as improvisational methods or improv. Since my stay so far had been focused on a pattern I decided today it seemed only natural to turn toward the improv direction.

The Candidates

While packing for this adventure I included, in my project box, the blocks I had created from a previous block swap. The blocks I received were not at all to my liking. Rather than leave them as they were I cut them up and turned them into smaller improv pieces. The new inventions were surrounded by white fabric and stitched together to form a quilt top. To let the quilt’s appearance solidify in my mind I set the quilt top aside to stew.

There currently are 24 blocks that have not been re-purposed and three that obviously have. Big decision now! Do I play with the three or do I focus on the 24?

The 24 blocks, although a much larger undertaking, is the direction I went.

There were many of the 24 blocks I really liked and the rest not-so-much. I decided to sort them into two piles, yes & no.

The ones on the left are the yes pile. There were seven blocks in the not-so-much or no pile. That left me with seventeen blocks.

Down to Seventeen

The seventeen were then sorted by color theme into a pile of nine somewhat subdued colors and the other eight slightly more vibrant colors. The stack of nine were shuffled through several arrangements until I found a color flow that I found appealing.

Next I had to decide if I wanted to leave them in their current size or shrink them down. Eventually I decided to leave the white border as is. The version with the larger white border gave the eye more room to rest. Here’s how they looked after being stitched together.

Art Quilt # 17: The Chosen 9

I’m calling them Art Quilt # 17: The Chosen 9.

The other eight blocks were divided into two groups of four. Each grouping was left as is. No changes were made in their dimensions. Here’s how the mini quilts looked after they were assembled.

Art Quilt # 18: Four Friends # 1

This one is called Art Quilt # 18: Four Friends # 1

Art Quilt # 19: Four Friends # 2

and this one is called Art Quilt # 19: Four Friends # 2.

Rising Star

One other small block was modified with the addition of a few fabrics and a striking yellow border. This sweet little gem, which I have named Art Quilt # 20: Rising Star, looked like this.

Art Quilt # 20: Rising Star

All four art pieces are awaiting the quilting process. I will update you when they are finished.

Unplanned Excitement

Before closing today I must share a brief account of my exciting afternoon. I discovered the presence of a winged insect, of the scary kind, inside my LCITW. This was the fourth one I had encountered. To explore where these creepy things might be coming into my cabin I went outside to take a look. Our air conditioners are located on the roof of the cabin. As I looked up at the one above my bedroom I noticed a fairly steady stream of critters flying in and out.

Multiple alarms (that’s putting it mildly) started sounding in my head. There was no way I could let that continue. After a few phone calls I found a local expert that could rectify my situation. Much to my delight he was able to make a service call within hours. Before the gentlemen left he knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to see the nest he had removed. Who wouldn’t want to? I grabbed my camera and went to see what he had found. I was absolutely shocked when I saw the nest. Take a look.

Isn’t it huge!! Thank goodness he took it with him! I was so glad he could remove the nest and not get stung.

That’s All

Well this brings Day Five to a close. At the beginning of my post I told you I would share links to the first four days. Here they are: Day One, Day Two, Day Three and Day Four. I look forward to our next visit. If you like what you have read and are not currently a follower, why not join in. To sign up just enter your email address in the designated area. It’s location varies depending upon what type of a device your are reading this on.